Contact
by Quazie89
Summary: Cruz tries to get a very reluctant Lightning McQueen to contact Sally when he is still at the Rust-eze trainer center, all the while wondering what is preventing him from doing so.


Hello, everybody! I wanted to write something that was told a little bit more from Cruz' perceptive on things and I somehow came up with this story, in which Cruz tries to talk a very relectucant Lightning McQueen into calling Sally when he is at the Rust-Eze Training Center, all the while, wondering what could be preventing him from doing so. I honestly thought he should've called her in the movie while he was away at the Rust-eze training center, just once, to let her know how he was doing and that he was okay, and it was something I could totally see happening in the movie. This story takes place during the film, not long after Lightning's training session on the beach, but before he goes off to train with Smokey. I think it's a bit more light-hearted than my last Cars Fan Fiction, and it's a little bit shorter, at eleven pages, but I hope you enjoy it!

Lightning McQueen had become old.

Cruz Ramirez couldn't believe it.

She hadn't been joking when she had called him an old, broken-down imposter with flabby tires, to use her exact words. She regretted them, recalling them now, and wished she could take them back, remembering the hurt look on his face when she had said them, but it was too late now. What was done was done.

Besides, she hadn't been calling him names just to motivate him, despite what she had tried to make him think. She had only been calling out things the way she had seen them, speaking out her mind, something she had become known for at the Rust-eze Racing Center of late. She really hadn't recognized him underneath all the new rust and dirt covering his worn and battered body.

He had become old, and he looked it. He had looked old, run-down, and tired. Used-up. There were all kinds of words for it. She had seen the same look on all of the old racing legends when they were brought to her after their own big wreck or retirement. She had just never thought she would see it on Lightning, and she never wanted to see it on any other car again, not if she could help it.

Cruz sighed, turning off the TV. She had been watching Lightning's wreck. Again. She had seen it multiple times since it had happened, replaying it both in her mind and on the TV screen over and over again, trying to figure out what had gone wrong and what, if anything, anybody could've done to stop it.

The reporters had said his tire had blown. They hadn't been lying. She had seen it. They had been right. She just couldn't accept it. To see a racing legend, like Lighting, with such a long and successful career, just go down in flames the way he had…it hadn't been right. It had just been plain wrong. No car should ever have to go through what Lightning had gone through, but it happened to every car, eventually, and in her line of work, more often than not, she had seen it happen to the best of them.

She had cried the first time she had seen it. She had just flat-out bawled. This was her hero they were talking about here, after all, the car she had worshipped since she had been old enough to decide she had wanted to be a racer. She had just been devastated and traumatized by the whole thing, even at her age, like everybody else had been, and Sally….poor, poor Sally. If she had taken it hard, over a car she hadn't even known at the time, Cruz could've only imagined how she must've felt. The clip of her racing out onto the track to Lightning's side had been a favorite of the media, and it had been one they had loved to show over and over again on the news whenever they would do coverage of the story. Each time, they would always cut to the shot of her opening her mouth in a silent wail, after she had tried and tried again to get a response out of Lightning and failed, tears streaming down her windshield. This was the part where Cruz always lost it.

The second time she had watched it, she had just sobbed quietly, more subdued in her grieving.

The third and fourth time she had sit and watched it in dead silence, watching the familiar but haunting images with quiet unease.

She had quit watching it after awhile. She hadn't liked the car she had become. After watching it so many times, she had become almost numb to it, and she hated herself for it.

She had only watched it again that day, right after she had met Lightning, to remind herself what he had went through, and to put herself in his tires, that way she could better understand him to make it easier for her to train him.

She decided to go check on Lightning, see how he was doing. It was the least thing she could do, after she had humiliated him. She couldn't take back what she had said, but she could let him know she cared.

Bound and determined in her mission, she rolled out of the monitoring room where she was supposed to have been keeping track of the progress all of the cars were making on the treadmills instead of watching Lightning's wreck, and down several halls before she found what she was looking for.

She knew where he would be. He had been hanging out in the gym a lot, hitting the punching bags with his tires for practice, and that was where she found him this time. Once again she was struck by how old and tired he looked, his grill weathered and ravaged by the slow, cruel effect of time. The sight haunted her.

"Hey, Lightning," Cruz said, driving up to him, her voice low. "How's it going?"

Lightning jumped, and Cruz could've sworn he must've leaped teen feet off the floor, almost coming out of his metal casing. The wreck had made him jumpy, another unfortunate side effect she had seen in a lot of racers after their first big wreck. The condition was nothing new, racecars of all brands and sizes having been inflicted with it over the course of their careers and life spans ever since the early days of racing, but there was little known about it, and medical professionals didn't have a name for it, yet, though many said it was similar to an almost identical mental disorder soldier cars sometimes suffered after they came back from the war, and many doctors thought the two were either related or one in the same. She wasn't about to confront Lightning with the matter, yet, though, unless he asked her about it first. She figured he would tell her when he was ready. "Oh, hi, Cruz," he said, gasping for breath. "I didn't hear you come in."

Cruz chuckled. "Yeah, I'm silent, but deadly, like some kind of predator," she said, baring her teeth in a friendly, good-natured snarl. "How are you doing, old man?"

Lightning scowled at the jab at his age. "Well, I think I'm been doing pretty good, for an old man," he said, going back to swinging his tire at the punching bag. He wasn't putting much effort into his swings, and seemed pretty unenthusiastic about the whole thing, but at least he wasn't moping around like he had been doing. At least he was making an effort.

"Lightning, look, I was just passing through, and I was wondering if you wanted to stop and get a bite to eat in the cafeteria," Cruz said, watching the bag swing back and forth. "They're having lunch right now."

Lightning glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, raising a questioning eyelid. "What are they having?" he asked, using his tire to steady the bag.

Unable to meet his eyes, Cruz lowered her gaze, looking down at her hood. "I don't know, I haven't checked, yet," she said.

Lightning drove up to her, panting, out of breath before he even reached her. "You know, now that you mention it, I do feel a little hungry," he said, pausing to catch his breath. "I think I worked up an appetite with all that exercise."

Cruz tilted her fender toward the door. "We'll go to the cafeteria, then, and grab us a bite to eat," she said, and rolled out of the gym, Lightning trailing along behind her. "I'm getting a little hungry myself." She hadn't eaten since breakfast.

"Sounds great," Lightning said, quickly falling behind her, and Cruz slowed down for him to catch up.

"You don't have to slow down for me, you know," Lightning said, winded.

"Well, okay, I'll just leave you behind then," Cruz said, but laughed when she said it, to let him know she was joking. Then, she sped off down the hall, anyway, leaving Lighting far behind. She didn't stop to see how far behind he was, either. If he wanted a challenge, then she was going to give him a challenge.

* * *

Being lunch time, the cafeteria was full when they got there, packed with cars of all brands, shapes, and sizes. At first, Cruz didn't think they were going to find a table, until she found an empty spot at one of the tables toward the back of the room.

"Go ahead, sit down and rest," Cruz said, nudging Lightning with her tire. "I'll go get our food. What would you like to have?"

"Anything they got, it doesn't matter," Lighting said, and smiled at her, making her feel slightly better about herself.

"Got it, old man," Cruz said, knowing it would annoy him, and it did.

Lightning scoffed. "Whatever you say, rookie," he said, but smiled, not taking her jab too personally.

Cruz couldn't help but smile back. She knew then everything would be all right between them.

Lightning turned and left. Cruz watched him leave, then got in the long line for food and waited.

Lightning sat at the table at for what seemed like the longest time, waiting for Cruz to come back, when the spunky, young trainer finally returned.

"Hello, old man!" Cruz called out to him, announcing her arrival with a shout and making him jump. He had been jumping at a lot of things here, lately, it seemed. Why was he so jumpy? What was wrong with him? He was pretty sure Cruz would know the answer, but he wasn't about to ask her. The last thing he needed was to let her have something else to humiliate him with.

After she had sat down across from him at the table, Cruz slid his plate over to him, and Lightning was unable to hide his disdain when he looked down at it. He was a little disappointed. He was looking at nothing, nothing but rabbit food, soft stuff, food for old people.

"What, didn't think I could handle the hard stuff?" Lightning asked, his grill contorted by a disgusted scowl.

Cruz glared at him. "No, it wasn't that, and you know it," she said, resisting the sudden urge she had to throw her food at him. "You need to eat this stuff. It'll help build your muscles back up, put some strength in those old, creaky joints."

"You really enjoy making me feel old, don't you?" Lightning asked, looking both hurt and annoyed at the same time.

"Yes," Cruz said, unable to bring herself to lie to him.

Lightning didn't say anything, looking down at his at his food instead, and began eating.

Cruz watched him eat. It was painful. He took slow, careful bites, as if it hurt him to even eat.

"Have you called Sally, yet, since you got here?" she asked, after she had thought he had enough time to digest his food.

Lightning gulped, swallowing down the last remaining bite of his food. "No, I haven't." he said, pausing to take a sup of his cup of fuel.

"Why?"

"Well, don't you think you ought to?" Cruz asked, bracing herself for the angry response she knew he was going to give her. "I'm sure she would love to hear from you."

Cruz cringed from the unbridled fury burning in his eyes. "I don't think she would be interested in talking to me right now," he said.

Cruz frowned, puzzled. "Why?" she asked, wondering why he would not want to see Sally.

"Because I said so, that's why!" Lightning shouted, his booming voice echoing throughout the entire cafeteria.

Cruz gaped at him, dumfounded and shocked, her eyes and mouth wide open. Lightning never raised his voice at her. True, he snapped at her every now and then, mostly whenever she would crack jokes about his age, which was understandable. Cruz would be annoyed, too, if she was old and somebody poked fun of her age all the time, but she had to have somebody poke fun of. Life would get pretty boring pretty fast if she didn't have somebody to pick on. Lightning just happened to be the closet and easiest target.

They were getting stares from everybody now.

Lightning backed up, pulling away from the table. "Cruz, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it," he said, backing slowly toward the entrance. "I'm just not ready to talk to Sally right now, okay?" With one last, longing look of regret at her, he rolled out of the room.

Cruz chuckled nervously, feeling every eye in the room on her. "Nothing new to see here, folks," she said, backing out of the room. "Just a little misunderstanding, is all, and we're moving on."

Cruz left the cafeteria quickly after that, to avoid any more scrutiny, leaving her food untouched. Lightning had left his plate half-finished. She didn't worry about it, too much. The cleaning crew always came back to clean it up later; it was their job after all. Besides, she knew she shouldn't be, and that it was none of her business, but she was more concerned with Lightning and Sally, and their relationship. Why was the old codger so afraid to talk to her? Was he ashamed of where he was, what he had become, and couldn't stand the thought of Sally seeing him the way he was? Neither of those possibilities made sense to Cruz. From what she had heard on the news, she knew Lightning had gone back to Radiator Springs to recuperate after the wreck, and from the way he had talked, he had spoken to Sally while he was there and everything had still seemed all right between them. She hadn't been ashamed of him then, and Cruz didn't think she ever would be. What was going on?

Cruz vowed to herself to find out.

* * *

After his big row with Cruz, Lightning went outside for a breather, to cool off some of his anger. Ever since he had come to the training center, he had found himself missing the sunshine more and more. He had been spending way too much time inside. He was a racer. He didn't like being cooped up indoors. He needed to feel the fresh air, the warm rays of the sun beating down on his hood, and the earth under his tires. Cruz might've been the best, top, expert trainer at the center, but this was something, being only a trainer and not a racer, she was never going to understand.

He couldn't believe the nerve of her, bringing up Sally the way she had. He didn't know why she had even brought her up. What reason did he have to call her? What was he supposed to tell her? That he couldn't go over two hundred on the treadmill? That he had crashed through the Stimulator he had been so confident he could master? That, deep down, he was scared to death of Storm, whose cold, steele-grey eyes and mocking, shark-like grin haunted him in his nightmares every night?

"What are you doing, out here, old man?"

Lightning jumped up at the sound of the new, yet familiar voice, and swerved around to face the direction in which it was coming from, furious to see Cruz driving toward him. How had she found him? He was beginning to think she was some sort of top secret agent, with an army of spies at her beck and call, watching his every move.

"Before you get mad at me and say anything, I knew you would be out here," Cruz said. "I remember, when you were at the beach, how you went on about being outside and having the whole earth."

Lightning looked away from her, staring down at his hood. "So, you think you know everything about me, huh?" he asked, his voice so low, she had to lean in closer to hear him.

Cruz shook her hood. "No, but I know there's got to be some reason why you don't want to talk to talk Sally, something you're not telling me," she said, not about to let him off the hook that easily.

Lightning's already thin patience snapped. "It's none of your business," he said, and moaned, wincing in pain, almost overwhelmed by the insistent, throbbing agony he could feel pounding away against the axle in his front, left tire, and doing his best to ignore it, but it was part of what was making him irritable.

"I know, but as your friend and personal trainer, I think I need to know," Cruz said, growing concerned for her 'senior project'. "I'm just trying to help."

Lightning swerved back around "What am I supposed to tell her, Cruz, huh?" he asked, all of the pent-up fury and frustration that had been building up within him over the past couple of months finally coming to the forefront. "You tell me! What have I accomplished in these past few days, huh? I got nowhere on the treadmill, and I crashed again, through the Stimulator, this time. With my track record, nobody's going to sponsor me anymore, and I'm scared to death of Storm. How's that for the truth, huh, Cruz? How am I supposed to tell Sally all that and still expect her to love and support me? I'm a laughing stock, a joke."

"Lightning, I'm sorry, for everything you've been through, I really am, but I don't think Sally will care about any of that," Cruz said, once she was sure Lightning was finished with his diatribe. "I watched that video of your wreck hundreds of times. I saw the look on Sally's grill when she ran out onto the track after you wrecked. I'll never forget it. She was completely heartbroken. You could tell she had thought she had her whole world wiped out from under her. She loves you, and I don't think you not being as young and fast as used to be is going to make her feel any differently about you."

Lighting thought about what Cruz said, going over her words in his mind. He knew the wreck had been hard on Sally, maybe even harder than it had been on him, in some ways. She had acted so strong and tough, and had put up such a hard front when he had been in the hospital, he just hadn't thought it had bothered her as much, but Cruz had woken him to the true, painful reality of it all. Now he knew how much it had really affected her, and he felt ashamed for not asking how she had felt about it sooner.

Cruz turned to leave. "I really think you should call and talk to her," she said, driving farther and farther away from him. "I think she would really appreciate it."

"Cruz, wait-" Lightning began, but didn't even bother finishing his sentence, seeing little point in it.

Cruz was nowhere in sight, making it clear she hadn't heard him.

* * *

Sally was surprised when she got the call from Lightning. She hadn't been expecting it. The last thing she had heard from him, he had been going off to the Rust-eze Training center, and had already been gone a couple of months. She hadn't gotten a call from him since, and she missed him.

"Why, hello, Stinky-" Sally began, and stopped herself for a moment before going on, chuckling to herself before going on. "I mean, Stickers."

By the bemused look on his grill, Lightning hadn't found her joke at all funny. "Ha, ha, very funny," he said, the wry tone in his voice unmistakable. "I caught that, you know."

Sally smiled at him, giving him a playful wink. "I know," she said, and lowered her voice. "What have you been up to, Stickers?"

Lightning cleared his throat. "Well, nothing much," he said, feigning a bored sigh. "I got a new trainer named Cruz, I got to try out the Stimulator, which I wouldn't recommend, by the way; its' not as great as it seems, trust me. It's totally overrated. Oh, and I took a couple of punches at a punching bag, today, too, by the way. I think I did pretty good, for an old timer."

Sally knew he was lying about the Stimulator. He had been going on about that thing for months, even before he had wrecked, back when Storm had started to get big and the press had began intensive converge on his strict training regime, but she decided not to call him out on it. She didn't know what could've changed his mind about it, but didn't press him on the matter, not wanting to irritate him any further than what he clearly appeared to be. "Sounds like you've been pretty busy," she said, trying to humor him.

"Yeah…" Lightning said, trailing off a moment. "It's pretty exhausting, to tell you the truth."

Sally studied Lightning, taking a closer look at him, and was taken aback a little. Not for the first time, she saw how old and tired he had become, but it always came as a shock to her. He looked ancient When had he become so old? Did she look that old? She hoped not, but then again, she didn't really know. No matter how much she tried to tell herself it had been the wreck, she knew, even before then, he had been aging, slowing down. The wreck had only helped speed up the aging process. "So, what's this Cruz like?" she asked, growing a little suspicious of this new trainer Lightning had mentioned, and trying to push back her fears.

Sally noticed Lightning had perked up a little at the mention of Cruz's name. "Oh, she's really great, really nice, you would like her-" he started, but paused, seeing the spark of jealously that must've flashed across her grill at the mention of Cruz being a she. "You wouldn't like her, though," he was quick to add. "She's really mean, all the time going on about by age, talking about how old I' am, as if I'm not even around-"

Sally burst out laughing. She couldn't help it. She really loved it when she got Lightning worked up over nothing. "Oh, Stickers, I was just playing with you," she said.

"I'm happy to see you get so much enjoyment out of making a mockery of me," Lightning said, going off into a grumbling tangent.

It was then, at that moment, Sally noticed something about Lightning she hadn't before, and her laughter quickly died.

Lightning was hurting.

She could see the pain in his heavy-lidded eyes, and in the way he kept on shifting his body, putting more weight on one side than the other, but he was trying his best to hide it. Seeing him like this, the way he was, reminded her of the moment when he had first gotten out of surgery, right after the wreck. He had just woken up, and was still in a great deal of pain, maneuvering himself pretty much the same he was now. The primer the doctors had just put on him had still been fresh, and he had been hooked up to a bunch of cords and wires, making him look more like a machine than a car. Fighting for his life, the machines had been the only thing keeping him alive, making him a pitiful sight to behold indeed. She never wanted to see him like that again. "You all right, Stickers?" she asked, and lowered her voice, making it calm and soft.

Lightning groaned. "Yeah, I guess I'm just a little sore, but I think it's from all of the extra heavy lifting I've been doing lately," he said, grimacing.

"Well, you better slow down for awhile, take it easy for me," Sally said, getting tearful. "I would hate for anything to happen to you, with you all the way over there, and me all the way over here with no way to get to you in time. I don't want to see you in the hospital like that ever again, you hear me, Stickers?"

Lightning began to stammer, struggling to find the right words to say. "Listen, Sally, look, I'm sorry," he said, stuttering. "I should've called you sooner, but I didn't think you would want to hear from me."

"Why not, Stickers?" Sally asked, hearing hurt in her voice. "What would ever make you think that?"

Lightning closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "I'm…I'm a failure, Sally," he said, opening his eyes again, but with great reluctance. "It took a lot of convincing from Cruz to get me to come here and talk to you. I've made zero progress since I came here. Cruz keeps beating me in every single race. I couldn't pass Storm's speed on the treadmill. I'm scared to death of him now, and I crashed through the Stimulator, so go ahead and laugh, get it out of your system. I know you want to."

"I'm not laughing, Stickers, and I won't, I promise you," Sally said, softening her hard expression, along with her voice.

Lightning seemed to relax, and all the tension appeared to be leaving his body. "Well, there was one thing I was better than Cruz at," he said, obviously quite proud of himself.

"What?" Sally asked, honestly curious.

"I can drive better on the beach then her," Lightning said, sounding, for the first time in years, very much like a little, young car. "She fell into a hole, after she said I probably would, and she kept on having to stop for crabs because she thought they were cute."

"I'm going to have to meet this Cruz one day," Sally said, chuckling. "She sounds like somebody I would get along with."

"Oh, you would," Lightning said, nodding his hood up and down. "You two would get along just great, as much as you both like to taunt me about my age, you two would get along just splendidly."

Sally gave him a sad smile. "I know I give you hard time, Stickers, but I love you no matter how old you are, you got to understand that," she said, the tone of her voice growing serious. "Don't you ever doubt that for one second, no matter what anyone tells you."

"I know, but sometimes I just need to hear you say it, Sally," Lightning said, sounding so very, very tired. "It…it makes me feel about myself, you know?"

Sally sniffed. "Yeah, I know," she said, the tears starting to pour full force. "I'm glad you called me, Stickers. It's good hearing your voice again. I don't think I told you this, but after you wrecked, I was afraid I would never hear your voice again." Her voice started to break up. "It was the scariest feeling I've ever had. I felt so alone."

"Well, you can make sure it'll never happen again, I promise you that," Lightning said, so sure and confident in himself, he came off as extremely obnoxious, and Sally was put off by his reemerging, arrogant attitude, which she thought he had grown out of a long time ago.

Sally squeezed her eyes shut, trying to prevent any more tears from flowing. "I appreciate you trying to reassure me, Stickers, but don't talk like that," she said, once she had managed to stop anymore tears from coming and she had regained control of herself. "You're starting to sound like your old self, and I don't like it. I don't know what's going to happen. You don't know what's going to happen. The moment you start getting cocky will be the very second you fall, and I don't think Doc would want you to go down that route, do you?"

Lightning, she knew, wouldn't have a hard time arguing with her on that one, but she could tell he wanted to hit her with a smart comeback of his own. "No," he said, speaking up at last. "No I don't, and you're right. He wouldn't. I'm sorry, Sally. I shouldn't have talked like that. I was being a jerk and I apologize for it. "

Sally smiled again, only, this time, it was a much happier smile. "Apology accepted," she said, glancing nervously around for Matter, suddenly remembering the tow truck.

A car wouldn't be able to tell it just by looking at him, and at first sight he would be the last vehicle a car would expect to be so knowledgeable about such things, but Mater was actually pretty handy when it came to the latest gizmos and gadgets, an unusual character trait that contradicted his rough and rusty exterior but a useful and welcome one to the rest of the Radiator Springs community whenever anybody needed his skills, and Mater was always there and willing to help. He kept a TV monitor in the shed he lived in at his towing business, Tow Mater, as a way for him to be able to chat with his friends and keep tabs on them, so when he had gotten a call from Lightning, asking for her, he had came to her own business, the Cozy Cone hotel, to tell her Lightning had called asking for her, and brought her back to the shed in order for het to get her in touch with him. After Mater had offered to help her to get into contact with Lightning, and she had accepted his assitence without question, he had hooked her up to the TV monitor to talk to him. She had been so wrapped up in her conversation with Lightning, she had, without thinking, left the tow truck alone, which, as everybody who knew Mater would know, wasn't a good thing. She thought she had better be getting back to him. "Well, I'll be letting you go then, Stickers. I'm afraid I left Mater by himself. It was nice talking to you again."

"You too, Sally. Tell Mater I said hi for me, will you? And don't let him get into too much trouble," Lightning said, great sadness in his voice. "I missed you."

"Oh, I will, don't worry, and I missed you," Sally said, and grinned. "So long, Stinky."

"Hey-"

Sally interrupted Lightning, cutting off his protest. "This is Sally Carrera, singing off," she said, still laughing when she turned off the television and the screen went blank.

"That was so love-dovey and sickening, I thought I was going to barf."

Lightning jumped, spinning around until he found himself face to face with Cruz, furious at himself for letting her scare him again. "Cruz! Have you been out there this whole time, listening to everything we've been saying?" he asked, gasping for breath.

"No, I just had driven by, saw the light on in the room and figured it must've been you. I knew you would be here." Cruz said, looking around the monitoring room, her gaze settling on the TV he had just turned off. "See, that wasn't so hard now, was it?"

"No," Lighting said, his voice a low mutter.

"Say it again?" Cruz asked, and crept toward him, lifting a skeptical eyelid.

"I SAID NO!" Lightning raised his voice at her for second time that day, hating himself for it, but not really caring if anybody heard. He had gone long past the point of caring what anybody thought about him anymore.

Cruz snickered. "It's fun, making you angry," she said, speeding out of the room and down the hall.

Lightning revved his engine. "All right, Cruz, you're going to pay for that one," he said, and took off after her, neither one of them paying any in the least bit attention to the other cars happening to be in their way, spinning them out of their path if they happened to be too close.

Everything was, for the moment, back to normal, and all of their troubles were forgotten.

THE END


End file.
